The papers contain records of all the five companies, which, at one time or another, made up the Anglo-Danubian group, although the majority relate to the Chine Shipping Company. Much of the Companies' history can be traced through agreements between them, and with the Ministry of War Transport, 1941 to 1944. The only statutory company record to survive is the Director's minute book of the Rodney Steamship Company Ltd, 1915 to 1935. Financial ledgers and accounts include: Anglo-Danubian Transport Company Ltd, 1944 to 1962; Chine Shipping Company Ltd, 1944 to 1968; the Gryfevale Steamship Company, 1929 to 1950; the Rodney Steamship Company Ltd, 1948 to 1961; the Anglo-Continental Inland Waterways Ltd, 1947 to 1951. There is a full series of general correspondence for Chine Shipping, 1961 to 1968. In addition there is a long series of records relating to Chine's ships in the 1960s. These include: accounts relating to the Charles Dickens, 1961 to 1962; correspondence and accounts, Macaulay, Tennyson and Thackeray, 1963 to 1968; chief officer's and chief engineer's logs for Macaulay, 1963 to 1968, for Tennyson, 1964 to 1968, and Thackeray, 1964 to 1968; repair accounts for Macaulay, 1960 to 1968, for Tennyson, 1957 to 1968, and Thackeray, 1958 to 1968. There are insurance records, 1958 to 1968, and general files dealing with the usual minutiae of a shipping office.

Administrative / biographical background
The Chine Shipping Company of Cardiff was incorporated as a public company in 1934 with a capital of £20,000. Until the Second World War the Company operated in a modest way with second-hand ships. During the war, and after the loss of its last ship, the Company operated various vessels on behalf of the Ministry of War Transport. In 1944 it was taken over by the Anglo-Danubian Transport Company, which had its headquarters in London. This company, founded in 1928 by George Bischoff (d.1963), had operated a fleet of tugs and barges in the Danube before the war. Bischoff decided to go into deep sea shipowning with the purchase of the Chine Shipping Company. In 1945 he also purchased the Gryfevale Steamship Company and the Rodney Steamship Company. In addition, he owned the Anglo-Continental Inland Waterways Ltd operating barges on the Rhine. From this time the Chine Shipping Company became the most active interest in the group, operating a small number of bulk carriers mainly engaged in the transport of phosphate rock from Spain to Billingham. The depressed state of the tramp freight market, however, led to the liquidation of the Company in 1968.